Travis Kelce Slammed by ESPN Commentator for Refusing to Talk to Media After Loss: ‘You Can’t Give Them Three Words?’

Travis Kelce is catching flak.

While on ESPN's First Take on Wednesday, Dec. 17, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo roasted the Kansas City Chiefs tight end for ignoring reporters following their loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, in which the team was eliminated from the playoffs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending ACL injury.

“It's not the time. I'll catch you guys during the week,” Kelce, 36, told reporters after the game. Three days later, the NFL star shared his feelings about the game on his podcast New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.

In his rant, Russo said he “could care less about [Travis'] stupid podcast,” and that he had a problem with Kelce’s seeming reticence.

"Kelce, after he settles down in the locker room, and he says 'Not today, fellas. Not going to talk to you,' the media. Hold on now. Time out!," Russo — who is known for histrionics with his Mad Dog Sports persona — yelled to the camera.

"You’ve got these poor guys who’ve been covering the Chiefs for years, who go to every training camp practice, every preseason game, every day for seven months they cover the football team and you blow them off at the end of this game when [the Chiefs] got Mahomes out, maybe be the last game [Kelce is] ever going to play. And you can’t give them three words? You can’t give them ‘Terrible day for us. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my career. Hopefully Pat will be okay,' when you’re walking out the door and you say not today and you don’t talk to the press?”

Russo continued, “Listen, I know, I understand you’ve got your brother and you’ve got your podcast and maybe you want to save the exclusive news. But no serious sports fan listens to that nonsense anyways. This is a situation here where it’s a Sunday afternoon, we want to hear from you. Mahomes is out for the year, you may not play again. Your season is over. You’ve lost. This is a huge moment in Kansas City and in NFL history and you blow everybody off walking off the field and don’t talk to the press and get in the car? That is wrong. That is not the way to do things. You give them five minutes. You give them a couple of sentences for the Chiefs fans.”

Reporters hoping to hear from Kelce after the game had to settle for his perspective on New Heights.

"That's the game for you right there,” Kelce told his brother Jason Kelce in the episode that aired Wednesday, Dec. 17. “It's just things just … when you need them the most just weren't falling for us, and, you gotta go back to the drawing board, man."

He continued, "We got three games left. I know we're still talking about this game, but, the integrity of who you are as a professional, as a player, you gotta love this s---, man," the tight end went on, insisting, "And Chiefs Kingdom, we're gonna give you everything we got."

The 13-year NFL veteran, whose future in the league remains uncertain, also acknowledged the shift in mood inside the locker room, with the team’s 10-year streak of making the postseason over, calling the situation “obviously f----- up."